Buffy Has Two Daddies
by werelemur
Summary: AU: Giles and Ethan are raising an orphaned Buffy.  A loosely connected set of drabbles.
1. Journey of the Sorceror

"Ripper, slow down! Think this through!"

But Giles kept running, even though his heart felt like it would explode. It was his fault - he'd smudged a line in the chalk - just one wrong bloody step - and the demon they'd summoned had escaped into the streets of Oxford.

He heard a scream, somewhere in the dark, and ran toward it. Came around the corner, to find a scene out of a slasher flick. Except in the movies, you didn't smell the blood -

The demon turned from its fallen victims, and let out a roar.

Giles dove forward, knife in one hand, cross in the other. Behind him, he heard Ethan shouting in Latin. He didn't recognize the spell, though he thought he should have.

And then the knife was deep in the demon's chest.

The demon roared, and slammed him through the air. He hit the ground, and for a moment, everything went black.

When he came to, Ethan was leaning over him. "Rupert - "

"I'm all right."

Giles forced rolled over, forced himself to his knees, then his feet. Then he knew - the other people wouldn't be so lucky.

The man had just a mass of pulped flesh where his head had been. The woman lay on her back, her curly blonde hair spread around her. Her broken ribs protruded up through her bloodied jumper.

And then he noticed the girl; he guessed she would be three or four. She stared up at him.

He moved closer, to block out the sight of her parents' bloodied corpses. "Hello, there," he said. "What's your name?"

"Buffy."

Bloody ridiculous name. He felt a sudden, irrational surge of anger toward her parents, followed by a surge of nausea.

"Buffy - I want you to close your eyes." He reached out for her, wanting only to get her out of there, away from the carnage.

Her punch knocked him back.

"My mommy says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

Back in their flat, they flipped through books and scrolls. The girl, cleaned of blood and dressed in one of Ethan's t-shirts, was asleep on their bed. The spell Ethan had used shouldn't wear off until the next morning.

"The demon's blood wouldn't have done this," Ethan insisted. "Not to an ordinary human. But if she had some superhuman potential, it might have activated it."

"Potential - yes." He felt sick to his stomach. "She's a Slayer, Ethan. And when the Council finds out - " He realized that he was crumpling the scroll he was holding. He set it down, and pulled his suitcase from the closet.

"You're leaving?"

I'm not going to let the Council have her. She's too young."

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Ethan - "

"If you're going to play daddy to the ickle slayer, you're going to need help. Admit it, Ripper, you need me."

Giles felt himself smiling. "Almost as much as you need me."

"I wouldn't go that far, Ripper - but time for that later. It sounds as if our daughter has woken."


	2. Fugitive Habits

In the six months since they found the four-year-old Slayer, they'd had to change their habits. He and Ripper could no longer spend the night drinking at the pub, or in performing arcane rituals.

"It could be worse," he muttered, "It could be bottles and nappies."

Ripper glared at him, over the top of Buffy's head. Oddly enough, he'd taken to this daddy stuff.

Of course, that left Ethan to do the heavy lifting. He hoisted both of their suitcases and Buffy's knapsack, and headed down to the car. Behind him, he heard Buffy ask, "Uncle Roopa, why do we have to move again?"

"Because - "

Downstairs, Ethan set down the suitcases and turned to open the boot. As he turned back, he saw the pain on Ripper's face.

"Because the bad men found out where we are."

"Can we stay at the next place?"

"For a little while."

"But I want to stay _forever_."

"I know, sweetheart," Ripper said, as he tucked her blanket around her and buckled her in. As he slipped behind the wheel, Ethan heard him mutter "no way to raise a child."

For the sixth time in as many months, they slipped off into the night.


	3. Full of Questions

Ripper would never have believed that one four-year-old could ask so many questions.

_"Why is the sky blue?"_

_"Why do you drive on the wrong side of the road?"_

_"Where does the sun go at night?"_

Aren't you just full of questions, he'd tell her, and then he'd try to explain:

_"How do birds fly?"_

_"Is the moon really made of green cheese?"_

_"How do bubbles get in soda?"_

But there were some that he dreaded,

_"Why do you and Uncle Ethan always sleep together?"_

_"Will the Bad Men find us again?"_

_"Are my Mommy and Daddy ever coming back?"_


	4. 6 AM WakeUp

"Six o'clock in the morning. What reasonable human being gets up at this hour?"

Ripper's only answer is a muffled groan from beneath his pillow.

The walls are thin enough that Ethan can hear Buffy bouncing enthusiastically on her bed. If it weren't for the fact that the flat is a rental - just another in a long chain of temporary stops - he might feel obligated to do something about it.

"Tie her to the bloody chair - that's what I'll do."

_That_ gets Ripper's attention. But before they can act on the thought, Buffy bursts through the door and jumps up on __their__ bed.


	5. Cold Comfort

After he's finally gotten Buffy back to sleep, Ripper returns to bed. "I don't know," he says, "what I'll do when she finally remembers."

"She might not." But Ethan knows they can't count on that. She's been having nightmares more often, not less. And even if she doesn't remember, sooner or later she'll be old enough to demand answers.

"We can't do anything about that now," Ethan says, and rolls over to put his head on Ripper's chest. "We need to concentrate on staying ahead of the Council."

It's cold comfort, he knows, but he has nothing better to offer.


End file.
